Into Another World
by alaska-young
Summary: I just wanted a place where we'd be together. Hell, that was just wishful thinking. I did NOT mean this!


**To those of you still hanging around, I applaude you. I last updated this story to tell you that I was going to redo it...three years ago. BUT LOOK! I RESURFACE! Seriously, I do plan to rewrite this sucker. My writing abilities have improved, and I've made a few changes to the plot like. Important ones. The girls are now sixteen instead of twelve, they are no longer going to be self-inserts, and my whole writing process has improved considerably. I'm also not a twelve-year-old raging fangirl anymore. But anywho! I hope those who stuck around enjoy the new and improved story, and those who are new, welcome! I hope you enjoy the newly instated Into Another World.**

"Iris, hurry up!" a hiss came from the other side of my closed bedroom door.

"Will you be _quiet_?" I hissed back, finishing tying my hair back into a bun. I gave a ceremonial kiss of my fingertips that I then slid over a photo on the wall, ritual taking over before I opened the door with a soft _creak. _"I'd rather not have all the siblings up begging me to take them along, if you don't mind."

Raven stood in the doorway, one hand on her hip, the other hanging to her side. She had actually heeded my advice and pulled her blood-red locks back into a ponytail, and from the glare on her face I could _tell_ it was killing her to do so. A pair of vibrant colored knee-highs peeked out from underneath her black hiking boots. She was ready to go, and probably had been ready to go for a while, but I was holding her up. "If you didn't take so long to get ready, I wouldn't have to remind you!" We walked down my hallway to the front door, letting it slide open with a soft '_click'_. Once outside, I sighed loudly, stretching my arms up.

The sun was golden in the sky, and there wasn't a cloud in sight, save for the small cotton wisp next to the yellow orb. It was a perfect day for a hike. "You know I'm not a morning person." I said, smirking as we made our way down my driveway. It was a quick ten minute walk to the beginning of the trail at the end of my road, but it would be at least an hour before we made our destination. "Besides, it's still early. We'll make it there in plenty of time before noon. Got your baithing suit?"

Raven pulled at her shirt a bit, pulling out a bright blue strap with her thumb. "Already on,"

"Ew, you're going to _hike _in that? That's going to be so uncomfortable!" Our destination was a clearing with a small pond about an hour hike from my house. My brother had showed it to me when I was little, and when I was old enough, I began hiking there myself with Raven, making our 'Fantasy Hikes' ritual. We would take one of our favorite fantasy or scifi books and hike up to the clearing for a day, reading aloud while eating our favorite snacks, breaking only for a swim to cool off.

She shrugged. "I'm just excited to cool off as soon as we get there. Besides, it left room in my Panda."

I rolled my eyes and glanced at the Panda Pack that was securely on her shoulders. She had won it two years ago at a carnival, and it was beginning to show its wear and tear. "I can't believe you still have that thing. It's missing patches of fur!"

"Yeah, but do you remember the day I won this?" I smiled, and nodded. "It was raining, and we were miserable, but your mom wasn't going to be able to pick us up for another hour or so. We were soaked, and all we thought was that it was the worst day ever. And then I saw the bag, and I wanted it. The games weren't under anything, so we had to continue to stand out in the open. And I lost twice, and you wanted me to give up so we could go under an awning, but did I?"

"No, you did-"

"No, I didn't! And On that third try, as the rain poured down harder, I popped the right balloons, and the Panda Pack was mine!"

"Very inspirational, Raven."

She punched my arm. "Watch it, Riss."

We didn't talk for the full hike. In fact, there were quite a few pregnant pauses in which we simply listened to the rhythm of our footsteps and the rustle of leaves as birds flew from branch to branch. A grin was plastered on my face the entire time.

About forty-five minutes into our hike, my grin faltered, however, at the thought that this very well might be the last Fantasy Hike we would ever take. Raven quickly caught my expression, and I voiced my thought.

A sad smile came over her. "Montana isn't that far away," she spoke softly, "Besides, there's always summer breaks. I could always come back for a few weeks."

I glanced over at her with a raised eyebrow. "Montana isn't that far away? Really? It's on the other side of the country! And where are you getting this money to fly here in the summers?"

She rolled her eyes. "You worry too much, Riss. It'll work out in the end. Everything always does, right? Que sera sera!"

I didn't want to drop it, but we were already at the clearing, and Raven gave a loud whoop and she sprinted forward, disrobing as she did so. I quickly ducked a little deeper into the woods to change, quickly dawning my bathing suit and joining Raven in the cool waters of the pond. I sighed, reveling in the feel of the mud between my toes and the murky water against my skin. I quickly submerged my head, and let our relaxing day begin.

"_Lifaen beamed and cried, 'Isn't she glorious? See how her scales catch the light! No treasure in the world can match this sight.' Similar exclamations floated across the river from Nar__í."_

Raven was reading out of my worn copy of _Eldest_, lying on her back as she basked in the sun to dry herself. I smiled, my eyes on the trees, as if somewhere deep within them the elves, dwarf, and dragon and Rider in question were continuing this scene. "Can you just imagine," I asked with a sigh, "if this was an every day occurrence? If seeing a dragon, or traveling with an elf or dwarf was something that you saw every day, and that you ended up getting bored of it, like people who live at a beach?"

She put the book down on her stomach, and glanced over at me. "I guess I never thought about it like that," She turned her face to the sky, closing her eyes and sighing. "God, I don't want to go to Montana, Iris! I want to stay here!"

"If only there was a place to go, huh? Somewhere magical! Where we wouldn't have to worry about siblings, or moving, or missing each other. Somewhere like...

"Alagaësia."

Thunder sounded, and I looked up to see an impending storm cloud edging its way towards us. "Where did that come from?" I thought aloud.

"Don't know, but I really don't feel like this being another carnival day," Raven said, laughing a bit. "C'mon, let's cut the Fantasy Hike a bit early today, hm?" Since our shorts were already on, we simply threw on our t-shirts before quickly packing up our small amount of snacks and my book. Shadows crossed the clearing, and I looked up to see the dark clouds already covering most of the sky.

"Don't think we'll make it before the storm, Rave." I observed. As we began to walk, the rain began, just a soft drizzle at first, but about five minutes in, it turned into an all-out downpour. We were left running through the trails, which were hard to decipher through the heavy rain. In minutes, were were soaked to the bone.

It was clear that in the first few stumbles that neither of us were going to be able to keep standing without the others help. We decided to hold hands as we ran, making it easier to pull each other up when we fell. It was about the seventh stumble, this one because of Raven, when she paused in getting up. "Um, Iris?" she called over the sound of the water.

"What are you waiting for? We need to find somewhere for shelter!"

"Since when did a normal storm have clouds like _that_?" She pointed up at the sky, and I followed her finger, squinting as droplets hit my face, but they widened at the sight above me. The clouds were so grey that they were a sickening black color, some even seeming to be a midnight purple.

"Come on!" I drug her to her feet, quickly getting her to feet. We began running again, this time with a different intensity.

This time, it was my turn to trip. I reached out my hand that wasn't clasped in Raven's to catch myself.

And continued to fall.

My grip on Raven's hand intensified, and we both let out a scream as we began to fall into a swirling, black abyss. I grabbed her wrist with my free hand, quickly shouting "Don't let go!" as she grabbed for mine as well. I couldn't tell if she really heard over her screams, but by the strength of her grip, she wasn't going to let go anytime soon.

Although our fall only lasted a few seconds, it felt much longer, seconds quickly turning into minutes, into hours. All at once, though, it stopped, our bodies hitting the ground with an immense force, knocking the breath out of both of us.

I coughed heavily, rolling over to my side before taking several wheezing breaths. Once I caught my breath, I slowly pushed myself up onto all fours before standing tentatively. I looked over to see Raven on her back, eyes wide as she took deep breaths. I reached down and helped pull her to her feet.

Realizing it had stopped raining, I looked around to see where we were, my lips quickly pursing. I didn't recognize this place at all. In fact, it didn't even look like the woods by my house. There weren't even the same sort of trees, and the ground wasn't even the slightest bit damp.

"What the _hell _just happened?" Raven spoke, looking around.

"More importantly, where the hell _are_ we?"

She spun around looking at me with wide eyes. "You mean you don't _know?_" I shook my head. "What do you _mean _you don't know! These are _your_ woods, dammit!"

"Do these _look_ like the woods by my house?" I asked, thrusting my arm out towards the trees. "These aren't even the same species of trees!" I sighed and looked around, beginning to panic. "I've never seen this place before! And look at the leaves, the bark, the ground. Dry! All of it dry! How can that possibly be with all that rain? I mean, look at us!" I grabbed at my drenched hair. "We're soaked! How can we _possibly_ be somewhere that we weren't two seconds before?"

Raven snorted, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "What are you saying, Riss, that we _transported _here?"

I glared at her, hands on my hips. "Got any other thoughts, oh wise Red One?" She went to shout at me, but I cut her off. "Look, fighting isn't going to get us anywhere. The sun's already setting. We should gather some firewood and then think of a way to get home."

"You're just worried about the dark." Raven mumbled, but walked over to the edge of the small clearing we were currently in, searching for twigs and loose branches. Joining her, we quickly had a pile large enough to start a fire. I looked at her expectantly.

"Well?"

"Well, what?"

I pointed to the pile. "Well, light it. You're the Girl Scout!"

She looked at me incredulously. "Girl Scout? Riss, I haven't been in Girl Scouts since I was ten!"

"Your point?"

She huffed, but knelt by the fire, two sticks in hand. After ten minutes, however, she was irritated and we still didn't even have the slightest spark. "This is pointless! We're just going to have to deal with it."

A knot in my stomach began to form. "But Raven-"

"What!" she snapped. Her face softened at my expression, remembering my fear. "I'm sorry, Riss, but we're going to have to be in the dark tonight. We'll have each other, at least, hmm?"

As it grew darker, I was glad it didn't get much colder. The temperature dropped a bit, of course, and our still-damp clothing made it that much colder, but it was nothing we couldn't handle. As we lay to go to sleep, the inky blackness unnerved me. Raven seemed like she was about to fall asleep, but I, on the other hand, was terrified. Night had always scared me, because I could not see clearly and because of the unnatural quiet that always fell with it. As embarrassing as it was to admit, I still had a night light in my room at age sixteen. My breath was slightly faster than normal as I tried to calm myself and rid my mind of phantom beasts in the dark.

Just as I closed my eyes, a strange, deep rumble sounded from somewhere in the trees. I gasped, quickly sitting up and nudging Raven. "Do you hear that?"

"Yeah, I hear it, Iris. It's probably just a plane. Just go to bed already, will ya?" she sounded half asleep.

The rumble stopped, but was replaced by a growl of sorts. Raven sat up quickly, instantly awake. "That wasn't a plane."

As it got slightly louder, I couldn't help myself, and screamed.

Raven grabbed a hold of my shoulders and made me face her. "Quiet! Do you want to be beast bait?"

I choked back another scream, my breathing heavy now. "I want to go home, Raven. I don't want to be here anymore. There's a _reason_ we leave our hikes in plenty of time before dark. I'm _terrified_ of being out in the open like this. There's nothing to protect me. I don't know what to do. I don't know where we are, I-"

Raven put a finger to my lips, effectively silencing me. "Riss, I promise it will be okay. Que Sera Sera, right?"

"_Enough_ with Que Sera Sera, Raven!" I huffed. I wrapped my arms around her in a hug, however, needing some sort of human contact. "Raven, I'm scared."

A rustling from the trees in front of us had us both hitching our breath. Silently, Raven grabbed two of the longest branches from the pile and handed one to me, standing and readying herself in a position as if she was about to bat.

As a young man who appeared to have stepped straight out of one of our fantasy novels appeared at the edge of the trees, I readied myself in the same position. When it was clear that Raven couldn't, or wouldn't, talk, I spoke in a quivering voice. "Alright, who the hell are you and what the hell do you want?"

The boy held his arms up to show that he meant no harm. "Please, I simply came to find the source of the scream. Are either of you hurt?"

"That...that's not of your business!" I spoke, my voice quivering a little less this time. "Now who the hell are you?"

"My name is Eragon."


End file.
